This invention relates to systems for automated or computer-controlled assembly of seamed articles from limp material, e.g., fabric. In particular, this invention relates to a system for automatically loading limp material segments for assembly by an automated assembly device.
Conventionally, assembly line manufacture of seamed articles constructed of limp fabric has incorporated a series of manually controlled assembly operations. Tactile presentation of the fabric-to-be-joined is made to the joining or sewing head under manual control. One drawback of this assembly technique is that the technique is labor intensive; that is, a large portion of the cost for manufacture is attributable to labor. To reduce labor cost, automated or computer-controlled manufacturing techniques have been proposed in the prior art.
The above-referenced patents disclose a set of assembly-related techniques that are readily adapted for, or particularly useful in the automated assembly of seamed articles from limp material. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,046 discloses an automated seamed garment assembly system which is adapted to receive segments of limp material at a loading table, to automatically transport the segments to a folding station where they are folded with seams aligned, and finally to present the folded segments to a seam forming apparatus where the seams are joined, all under machine control.
In the garment assembly field, the limp material segments for an article are generally pre-cut in batches, and stacks of similarly shaped pairs of elements-to-be-joined are formed. With the prior art manual assembly techniques, human operators generally select the pairs of elements-to-be-joined and manually control the assembly for the selected pairs. Even for the prior art automated assembly devices, such as that disclosed in the above-referenced U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,046, the actual transfer or loading of the limp material segments is generally accomplished manually, for example, by an operator who one-at-a-time loads pairs of elements-to-be-joined onto the receiving or loading table.
While this manual loading approach is effective, due to human abilities to sort by visual characteristics and to perform manual alignments, a relatively high level of skill is required to accomplish the one pair at a time manual loading. Moreover, this manual loading results in the relatively inefficient use of human operators since one has to be standing by on a continuous basis to repetitiously perform the loading in step with the assembly throughput characteristics of the automated article assembly system.
A further automated loading approach is described in the above-referenced U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,749. In that patent, a system for selectively loading the lower-most segment of a shingled stack of limp material segments is described. Each segment includes one or more adjacent layers of the limp material. The system includes a planar surface for supporting the stack in a selected position. A selectively operable extractor transports the lowest-most segment away from the stack. The extractor has one or more sets of hinged jaws adapted to selectively grip a portion of the leading edge of the lower-most segment and, then, transport the segment. Even with this automated system configuration, the shingled stack must be established from a plurality of pre-cut segments.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved system for automatically manipulating and transporting limp material.
Another object is to provide an improved automated assembly system for seamed articles including an automatic loading arrangement for use with an automated seamed article assembly system.
Yet another object is to provide an automated system for separating and transporting selected segments from a stack of segments of limp material.